US President Donald Trump, alongside US Vice President Mike Pence (L), arrives for a meeting with US House Committee Chairmen, including Representative Diane Black (2nd R), Republican of Tennessee and House Budget Committee Chairwoman, and Representative Virginia Foxx (2nd R), Republican of North Carolina and House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman, as they meet about healthcare reform in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, March 10, 2017. (AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB)

by Matthew Rusling

WASHINGTON, March 11 (Xinhua) -- The stakes are high for U.S. Republicans, which now controls both Congress and the White House, whether they can deliver on a seven-year promise to repeal and replace the Obamacare.

The Republicans' failure to do so will mean big trouble for the GOP, experts said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been at the center of controversy on a number of issues. Experts said that if he doesn't deliver on his promise to replace the landmark but controversial Affordable Care Act, passed by former President Barack Obama, it will harm the Republican Party.

"This is the whole ball of wax for the Trump administration. If they can't get this healthcare through, it's going to be very hard to get the rest of their agenda through, especially when Republicans campaigned for seven years on this very promise," Republican Strategist Ford O'Connell told Xinhua.

"So they are going to do everything necessary...to get it through to show they can go from an opposition party to a governing party," O'Connell said.

And if they get two or three big items through before the 2018 Congressional mid-term elections, chances are Trump will be re-elected in 2020, he said.

Indeed, the healthcare plan Trump recently revealed has been criticized by his own party as "Obamacare light" - a watered down version of Obama's law, which the GOP is against.

Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies of the Brookings Institution, told Xinhua the healthcare bill will be a major test for Republicans.

"They have majorities in the House and Senate, and it will be a complete embarrassment if they are not able to deliver on their most visible campaign pledge," West said.

If they cannot assemble a winning coalition on this issue, it will be hard for them to deliver on other issues. A loss would be devastating to their base and make it difficult for them to do well in the 2018 elections, he said.

There is disarray in the GOP because the party is divided between those who want to completely throw out Obamacare and those who want to preserve certain of its advantages for their home states. That tension is what produced the current bill, West said.

Ultimately, Republicans will have to figure out if there is a better bill that can pass muster with a majority of the House and Senate. Right now, it is hard to see what the alternative would look like because there are serious divisions within the GOP caucus, West said.

Christopher Galdieri, assistant professor at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, told Xinhua that since 2009, the GOP has defined itself in no small part as the party that will repeal the former president's healthcare law.

The Republicans voted to repeal it dozens of times while Obama was president, and many of the Republicans currently in Congress owe their election to their opposition to Obamacare. After the 2016 election, Republican leaders made repealing the Obamacare a priority.

"If they're not able to do that with unified control of government, that will be a real blow," Galdieri said.

Dan Mahaffee, senior vice president and director of policy at the Center for the Study of Congress and the Presidency, told Xinhua there is significant opposition to Trump's healthcare plan from the so-called freedom caucus on the Republican right.

"With relatively slim majorities in both houses, there are significant hurdles just within the GOP caucus to make this plan a reality," Mahaffee said.

Given the significant tax breaks for the wealthy, new exemptions for large insurance companies, likely reductions in insurance coverage, and the cuts to Medicaid funding-combined with the fact that it is now labeled "Trumpcare" - there is very little to no chance of Democrats supporting the plan, Mahaffee said.